Can the Church Achieve the Unity That Jesus Prayed For?

Have you ever driven in Italy?

I have, and it is quite an experience after driving in Australia for 45 years.

The overarching philosophy of drivers in Italy is an aggressive mindset of everyone for themselves where you don’t give an inch. This translates into the following practices:

• Hesitation means you are not going;

• The left lane is only for passing at high speeds;

• Stop signs mean “make sure the coast is clear before proceeding,” not “stop”;

• Horns are a mode of communication, not anger;

• Drive aggressively to fit into gaps and do not care for what is going on behind you; and,

• Use blinkers when changing lanes to say “here I go” not “I want to go” or “I’m waiting to see if you will let me go.”

When I first started driving in Italy, I was completely unaware of these practices. However, after the first week, I became familiar with this new mindset; it started to make sense, and I strangely appreciated it!

Across the Body of Christ, there is a rising prophetic voice calling God’s people to become familiar with the practices required to be an answer to Jesus’ prayer.

I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me (John 17:20-23).

Greg Boyd, in his book Repenting of Religion, writes:

We must confess that Jesus’ prayer for the church to manifest the perfect, loving unity of the triune God has by and large not been fulfilled. Whatever else the church may be known for in the world, it is not generally known for exemplifying a distinctive, radical, self-sacrificial love, either toward those within the body of Christ or toward those without. The church generally has not left people with the impression that we are unique in the way we affirm the unsurpassable worth of each individual regardless of how immoral and unlovable he or she may be.

If anything, the church today is largely known for its petty divisiveness along denominational, doctrinal, social, and even racial lines. On the whole, it is perceived as being less loving and less accepting than most other communities. It is often known for its self-proclaimed and often hypocritical alliance with good against evil and for its judgementalism toward those it concludes are evil. But, tragically, as a corporate body it rarely is known as being distinctive because of its radical love. In contrast to Jesus’ prayer, the world is not compelled to believe in the triune God on the grounds that his love is undeniably present among Jesus’ disciples.(1)

Similarly, Andy Stanley, in his book Irresistible, writes:

…Imagine a world where people were skeptical of what we believed but envious of how well we treated one another…Once upon a time it was so. Once upon a time the one-another culture of the church stood in sharp contrast to the “bite and devour” one-another culture of the pagan world.… Paul’s one-another list should epitomize the reputation of those who call themselves Christians. When people outside the church think about folks inside the church, the items on Paul’s list should come to mind.… After all, Paul said, “the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”(2)

As well as joining myself to this growing chorus of voices, I’m writing this series of books, Radically Restored, in response to the Lord’s call on my life. This became dramatically clear to me in March 2018 when my wife Lyn and I travelled from Melbourne, Australia to Adelaide, Australia for a weekend of ministry.

I have had the privilege of travelling a great deal over the last 25 years. When we arrived in Adelaide, we went to collect our bag from the carousel and found our bag was the first to come off the plane. This had never happened before, nor has it happened since to date. At the time, I felt prompted to take note.

We were then taken to our accommodation for the time we were staying in Adelaide. There were six units on a beach setting, and we were in Apartment One. I was again prompted to take note and was intrigued by how the Lord may be attempting to show me something through the number “one.”

Over the next few hours, I became convinced that when we went to dinner that night, we would be seated at table number one. I spoke to Lyn about what I was observing and sensing, including being seated at table number one. We went for dinner with our hosts who knew nothing of what was taking place, and we were all shown to table number one.

The Lord then proceeded to show off and make His point abundantly clear. When we returned to Melbourne, we were waiting at carousel number two for our bag with all the other passengers. Another passenger had collected their bag, and as the available area is very small, they were moving behind me to leave the building. I turned to make sure they had enough room to get past. As I turned, I saw one bag on carousel number one, with no passengers waiting there, and it was my bag!

In the preceding months leading to this ministry trip to Adelaide, I had been on a journey with the Lord in my devotional life. I was hearing Him unpack thoughts about reconciled diversity being a key to how God’s people could be an answer to Jesus’ prayer in John 17:20-23. All of these events during this ministry trip strongly affirmed that He was asking me to carry this message of oneness—that is, reconciled diversity—wherever I could. This four-book series Radically Restored has come to life.

The term reconciled diversity means that we reconcile within ourselves that expressions of the Kingdom of God through the many denominations, movements, and networks are not to be seen as requiring change or adjustment. We all need relationships for identity. There were twelve tribes in the nation of Israel, each with their particular role to play and land to occupy. They were not focused on trying to change the other tribes, asserting that their tribe was right and the others wrong, nor making it clear that their tribe was better than the others. They acknowledged diversity as being what it was.

For followers of Jesus to be an answer to Jesus’ prayer of being one requires a heart posture of being reconciled to the fact that we will not agree on everything. While we agree on ninety-five percent of theological questions, we are called to agree to disagree about the remaining five percent. We need to avoid striving to prove who is right and who is wrong. Equally, the ways we practice our faith are diverse, and we are called to honor and respect the traditions and ways of prayer and worship found across the Body of Christ. As we adopt the perspective of reconciled diversity, we begin to look to relationship for impact. Jesus declared our oneness would result in the world knowing the Father had sent the Son.

When we put our trust in Jesus, when we are born again, we are radically restored into oneness with God (see John 17:21). Jesus promised that when we placed our faith in Him through repentance that the Godhead would make their abode in us. We would no longer be orphans (see John 14:18). Paul understands this to be a mystery: “which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). Paul describes this radical restoration as “receiving the adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:5).

Understandably, the profound nature of this restoration has significant implications for how disciples who want to reveal Jesus live out their personal spirituality and journey (see Rom. 8:29; 1 John 4:15-17). To help us understand this significance, Jesus rewrote the second of the two great commandments of the Old Testament. He moved from “love one another as you love yourself,” to “love one another, as I have loved you.” In so doing, He expects us (it is a command) to know in our hearts, through experience and encounter, the love God has for us. This surpasses the more familiar experiences for us of knowing something intellectually (see Eph. 3:19). This knowledge was so profoundly significant to Paul in establishing the church that he wrote:

But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith (1 Timothy 1:5).

Jesus makes it clear that the radical restoration of being one with God needs to flow into a radical restoration of being one with one another. The outcome of these radical restorations is societal transformation. That is, “the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:20-21)

The apostle Peter recognized the significance of understanding that being radically restored to oneness with God should result in our pursuit of being radically restored to oneness with one another. In 2 Peter 1:5, he writes, “Now for this very reason also, applying….” In verses two to four, Peter describes how we have become one with God and can now live in oneness with God by “becoming partakers of the divine nature.” It is for this reason that we are to apply ourselves to a lifestyle that ultimately results in brotherly kindness and love—that is, oneness with others.

Peter then stresses the absolute centrality of building our spirituality on oneness with God and one another when he declares:

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins (2 Peter 1:8-9).

It then appears that he is not content that he has adequately explained the significance of following Jesus through a focus on oneness with God and others, and so he then goes on to write:

Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you (2 Peter 1:10-11).

Finally, he sees it as a privilege and necessity to definitely remind them of the need to live this way from oneness with God and others. Even when he has passed away, they would call this teaching to mind.

Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind (2 Peter 1:12-15).

Today, like Greg Boyd and Andy Stanley, I hear the Spirit asking me as a church leader to reexamine how at Stairway—the church that Lyn and I planted in 1990 and still lead—we live together as God’s people. With the governance teams of Stairway, we have identified the need to become a different sort of “driver” of the vehicle called the church. To no longer drive with the practices associated with church being an end in itself but rather to learn to drive with the practices associated with the church being a means to the coming of the Kingdom.

Jesus came “proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom” (Matt. 4:23). He taught us to pray, “Your Kingdom come” (Matt. 6:10). Jesus called us to “seek first His Kingdom” (Matt. 6:33). Countless theologians have approached finding the Kingdom of God in many different ways. For me, the most concise definition is: “Where the supreme rule and reign of Jesus exists.” The activity of those who proclaim, pray for, and seek first the Kingdom is “to restore everything back to the way God originally intended things to be.” God’s original intent for all mankind was that they live in oneness with God and oneness with one another. That mankind would bear witness to the covenant community of love that characterizes the Trinity.

The four-book series Radically Restored is written to help the reader on their journey of being a disciple who reveals Jesus and bears witness to the Kingdom of God in the way they live their lives.

• Book One: Radically Restored to Oneness with God

• Book Two: Radically Restored to Oneness with One Another

• Book Three: Radically Restored to Release Oneness for Societal Transformation

• Book Four: Radically Restored Leadership Practices for Establishing a Culture of Oneness

I welcome you to a journey based on curiosity and discovery with a view to a reformation for God’s people and His church.

Notes

1. Greg Boyd, Repenting of Religion: Turning from Judgment to the Love of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2004), 46.

2. Andy Stanley, Irresistible: Reclaiming the New That Jesus Unleashed for the World (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2020), 216-217.